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I'd seen my father. He was a poor man, and I watched him do astonishing things.

Sidney Poitier

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Sidney Poitier
Age: 97
Born: 1927
Born: February 20
Actor
Author
Autobiographer
Diplomat
Film Actor
Film Director
Film Producer
Stage Actor
Television Actor
Television Producer
Miami
Florida
Sir Sidney Poitier
Astonishing
Watched
Seen
Poor
Father
Things
Men

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I was born two months early, and everyone had given up on me. But my mother insisted on my life.
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As I entered this world, I would leave behind the nurturing of my family and my home, but in another sense I would take their protection with me. The lessons I had learned, the feelings of groundedness and belonging that have been woven into my character there, would be my companions on the journey.
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I had two roles for which I compromised.
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I learned to hear silence. That's the kind of life I lived: simple. I learned to see things in people around me, in my mom, dad, brothers and sisters.
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Accept that environment compromises values far more than values do their number on environment.
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My father was a poor man, very poor in a British colonial possession where class and race were very important.
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I know how easy it is for one to stay well within moral, ethical, and legal bounds through the skillful use of words - and to thereby spin, sidestep, circumvent, or bend a truth completely out of shape. To that extent, we are all liars on numerous occasions.
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I defend myself by improving myself.
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You don't have to become something that you aren't to become better than you are.
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I have always been a learner because I knew nothing.
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I was fortunate enough to have been raised to a certain point before I got into the race thing. I had other views of what a human is, so I was never able to see racism as the big question. Racism was horrendous, but there were other aspects to life.
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An appreciable number of directors have shifted to lower-cost films, allowing them to be satisfied with a more modest return.
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I was a gift to my mother. She was a remarkable person. God or nature, or whatever those forces are, smiled on her, then passed me the best of her.
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I do know that I'm responsible not for what happens, but for what I make of it.
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As I've mentioned, a large part of my father's legacy is the lesson he taught his sons. He brought us together and said, 'The measure of a man is how well he provides for his children.
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To be compared to Jackie Robinson is an enormous compliment, but I don't think it's necessarily deserved.
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So much of life, it seems to me, is determined by pure randomness.
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I want my great-granddaughter to have a fairly good understanding of the world in which I lived for 81 years and also the world before I came into it - all the way back a hundred thousand years, to the beginning of our species.
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When I set out to become an actor, I had set myself a standard.
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The impact of the black audience is expressing itself. They look to films to be more expressive of their needs, their lives. Hollywood has gotten that message - finally.
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